


Troll Tears

by orphan_account



Category: Trolls (2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-31 01:06:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8556739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "The first time Branch sees Poppy cry, it kind of freaks him out".





	

**Troll Tears**

The first time Branch sees Poppy cry, it kind of freaks him out.

     Branch knows crying; he watched Bridget sob over King Gristle on her dingy little bed, and goodness knows he shed his share of tears over the loss of his grandmother. So he also knows what crying means; it means sadness, sorrow, grief, and generally very un-Troll-like feelings (and certainly un-Poppy feelings).

     Which is why he's frankly shocked when he turns to her with a grin after pushing Cloud Guy off their raised toadstool and sees tears falling from her eyes. "P-po—Poppy!" he stammers, pulling her back from the edge and taking her hands in his. "Poppy what happened? What's wrong? Are you ok?" one hand leaves hers as he reaches up to cup her face, to brush a stray lock of hair behind her ear, not even realizing what he's doing or the amount of physical contact he's initiating which would normally kind of make him panic but he's already panicking because Poppy is crying and _what is going on_?!

     Branch searches his memory, but he can't recall ever seeing Poppy so much as sniffle sadly. In all honestly, until now he hadn't thought the new queen was capable of tears – she hadn't even cried when she had gone grey and was waiting to be flambéed! - but here she is with them running down her glittery cheeks. "Are you ok Poppy? Are you _hurt_?" he gasps as the idea hits him, and quickly looks her up and down, trying to spot somewhere where she might have cut herself, or banged her arm, or maybe she tripped over something and – " _pfffffffft"_ \- what was that noise?

     His eyes slowly travel back up to Poppy's face to see the pink Troll biting her lip as if to stop herself, but to no avail – another chortle slips out and Branch feels his eyes narrow as a quick flash of hurt break through his panic. "Are you laughing at me?" he asks softly, feeling himself start to back away, to withdraw back into himself.

     Poppy's eyes, still shiny with tears, grow wide. "Oh Branch no!" she cries, grasping his hands, keeping them pressed against her cheeks, a position he had not noticed in his worry but now could not stop thinking about. "Or I guess I was, I'm sorry" she continues, looking down as if suddenly shy. Branch opens his mouth to reassure her that it's all right when her eyes snap up to catch his. Peering at him through her lashes, she grins slyly as if she knows he's completely unprepared for what she's about to say. "It's just that you're really cute when you're worried".

     Branch freezes for a second….two seconds, until his brain actually comprehends what Poppy just said. And then the blush explodes on his face. Poppy has the good grace to relinquish her hold on his hands and let him turn around to save at least a little – now the same shade as a grape he was sure - face. She does not have enough grace not to giggle as he does so. "Right…so what's with the waterworks anyway?" he asks, feeling calmer but still not quite ready to face her again.

     "I am sorry about that" he hears from somewhere behind his left ear. "I'm just so happy!" Now _that_ gets him to turn around, the incredulous look on his face missed by Poppy, who had begun twirling around the toadstool in delight. "I mean, we rescued our friends, saved the entire village, made peace with the Bergens! And", she continues, landing from a particularly impressive jump spin in front of him, "you got your colors back."

     Branch feels himself smile softly "That I did". He glances down at his feet, still somewhat surprised to find bright blue and not grey toes beneath him. It was going to take some getting used to.

     "And," He looks up to find Poppy looking at him with such undisguised affection as she steps closer that he can't help but gulp. _That_ was going to take some getting used to as well. "I finally got to know you. We finally got to be …friends". The slight pause before "friends", and the slightly darker shade of pink her cheeks turned during it does not go unnoticed by Branch.

     "T-that we did" he stammers as Poppy takes another step towards him, a shy smile on her face.

     "Friends who can hug…. whenever they want" she finishes hesitantly, holding her arms open but still leaving space between them. Space, Branch realizes, that she wants to be sure he's ok with closing. _Oh Poppy_.

     He closes the space, wrapping his arms around her. "That we are" he affirms, smiling as he feels her relax against him. There are a lot of things in his life that he'll have to get used to, but he already knows hugging Poppy is not one of them.

     They stay that way for a few moments in silence before he hears a muffled "Branch?" from where she has nuzzled her head against his shoulder. He hums in a way he hopes she knows means 'go on'. "Have you ever felt so happy that singing and dancing just aren't enough to express it? And you just start crying but it feels really good?"

     Branch bites his lip as a memory of him, clutching a picture of his grandmother while tears stream down his face springs unbidden into his mind. He can feel the grey clouds, the sadness, gathering, threatening to pull him down again. Then he feels Poppy shift while she waits for his answer and they dissipate. There will be a time to talk about that. But it's not now, not with this amazing Troll in his arms. So instead he replies "No, I don't think that I have".

     "I have." Poppy states, moving her arms to circle his neck so she can step back and see his face. "I feel that way right now. That's why I was crying; I needed another way to show how happy I am. They were happy tears"

     Branch doesn't think about how he had never felt anything but miserable when he cried. He doesn't think about all the times he cried when he was scared, when he was hopeless. He doesn't think about how Poppy's words make all the sense in the world, but then no sense at all. He doesn't really think about anything, other than the pair of big pink eyes in front of him. "Happy tears" he murmurs, slowly leaning closer to Poppy. "Maybe one day I'll feel that happy too".

     "I hope so." Poppy practically whispers, leaning in even closer to him. Only inches left between them; Branch finds his gaze drawn to her lips before he can stop himself. He flicks his eyes up to find that Poppy's eyes doing the same thing. Hovering somewhere between ecstatic and terrified, Branch leans in to close the distance.

     Only to have the wind knocked out of him as the toadstool tilts, then starts to plummet towards the ground. Whatever had been about to happen was quickly replaced by he and Poppy clinging to each other and shrieking as they fell. Branch sees the ground coming closer and his eyes snap closed without thinking, bracing for impact.

     When he opens them, he finds himself surrounded by cheering Trolls, still clinging to Poppy, and – as an embarrassing bonus – still screaming. Poppy seems to notice all of this the same time he does, and they break apart as she spins around and shouts at the small yellow Troll whose hair was almost back to its regular size. "Smidge! You scared us! What'd you do that for!?"

     Smidge takes a step back from her fuming new queen, laughing. "Sorry Poppy. I didn't mean to scare you."

     "We just figured you two lovebirds had had enough "hugging time" by now!" interrupted a giggling Guy Diamond.

     "Yeah!" exclaimed Suki. "Come join the party!" Even Biggie stood to the side snickering, although he did at least have the decency to pretend he hadn't and blame it on Mr. Dinkles.

     Branch couldn't help but smile while he watched Poppy berate their friends, the blush she wore clear to everyone. There was a lot of new in his life now – new friends, a new home, a new …..Poppy. And maybe he didn't know exactly what she meant when she talked about tears and happiness. But as he watched her scolds turn into laughter, she suddenly turned around and offered him her hand to join the others, and he decided it was something he would be happy to learn.

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote this before "Dates and Disasters", but I didn't have any sort of fic accounts, so I figured I'd upload it now!


End file.
